Our electricity must come from somewhere. Not too many places are blessed with a gynormous waterfall that we harness for clean hydro-electric power, such as Niagara Falls, Ontario. Still, electric cars are heavily subsidized by governments, as without these they simply would be too expensive. This is true in Canada, China and Norway.
The inconvenient truth is that there is hypocracy in this movement, one that we should note. Motor Mouth: The inconvenient truth about China, Norway’s EV subsidies. This is not the only article that highlights the hypocracy.
Climate change is heating up our planet and causing weather and other factors to change. We need to do something about it, rather than just talk. But countries are implementing carbon taxation within our country while exporting crude oil to other countries. There is no logic to committing to climate change when you export the problem to other countries. This is hypocritical.
Canada‘s Federal Government is forcing provinces into a carbon taxation scheme. But they approve crude oil extraction and transportation from Alberta, through to BC, and sale to Asia and specifically China. If Canada was so concerned about carbon taxation and global warming, we would not be selling oil abroad, to be burned. This is hypocritical.
Norway has a huge oil fund, for a rainy day, and this is a good thing. Someone has been thinking ahead, putting away profits for the future. They also subsidize their electric cars, so that it is cheaper to buy and run an electric car than it is a gas one. They simply are exporting their oil to somewhere else. Net to the world, they could simply burn the oil in their country.
China is also hypocritical when they heavily subsidize electric cars, but sign huge projects to build more coal fired power plants within China. The number of coal fired power plants in China is increasing, not decreasing. You can see how Trump and the US can see that the Paris Clean Air Accord is a sham. China has committed to reducing emissions within the next 35 years, but for now they continue to increase pollution.
Not only that, China is helping other poor countries build and operate coal fired power plants when they had none in the past. as thee no spirit to the Paris Accord? The world is getting hotter due to coal and greenhouse gases, yet as a world population, all the Paris talk is for naught.
It is taxpayer money that is subsidizing these electric vehicles, money that could be spent better on social services. Why should taxpayers subsidize someone’s $80,000CAD Tesla sports car?
Let us be realistic and speak plainly. We all want clean air. We want to burn less oil in our countries, as this promotes clean air. That said, we also want to sell our natural resources and services to others who need oil to run their economies. We also want to employ our people. This is the reality.
In summary, we want clean air on our country but we are willing to export dirty oil to other countries. This strategy, while realistic, will not lower greenhouse gases throughout the world. No wonder the Paris Accord will fail. It has no substance and is unenforceable. Not only that, it is not realistic to how the countries of the world work.
Let us be honest. A climate change policy should be worldwide for it to be effective. You cannot have clean air in one country but not another. The world does not differentiate heat by country. Otherwise the world will continue to heat up, to the detriment of us all. it is better to say we cannot do it, rather than fool ourselves and say we are. Honesty is better then fooling ourselves.